(WXYZ) — The tentative agreement between General Motors and the United Auto Workers does have enough votes to be ratified, sources close to the matter tell 7 Action News.
The new developments come just a day after there were reports that the deal might not be ratified, and then new reports later Wednesday that said the vote was too close to call.
As of 11:30 a.m. Thursday, the unofficial tracking for the GM ratification vote showed the deal had 53.24% of production workers voting yes and 63.8% of skilled trade workers voting yes.
It is the closest vote of the Big Three automakers. As of 11:30 a.m. Thursday, 64.7% of production workers at Ford and 63.9% of production workers at Stellantis had voted yes on the contract.
Voting for GM workers officially concludes at 4 p.m. Thursday, and voting continues for Stellantis and Ford.
UAW President Shawn Fain spoke on Nov. 8 about the process of getting the tentative agreements with the Big Three, and once again reiterated his support for the contracts, urging workers to vote yes on them.
What's causing workers to vote no? On Wednesday night, one worker told us the higher seniority workers were against the contract.
Darren Dillard, who works at the Lansing Grand River Stamping plant, said he voted "no" on the tentative deal because it doesn’t go far enough for workers who are close to retirement.
Dillard has worked for GM for 27 years and said he hasn’t gained anything in any contract since then.
“This whole 'over the life of the contract' thing, that’s what kind of irks me. So, you’ll spread it out and again, those who are close to retirement won’t even get to benefit much from it," he explained. “I really want something to where I know my family will be more stable in retirement.”
The union and GM reached a tentative agreement on Oct. 30, and it was the final Big Three automaker to come to a deal.
The agreements would be set to run through April 30, 2028.
According to the UAW, the tentative agreement with General Motors would also include a 25% pay raise over the life of the contract, the same as with Ford and Stellantis. It also includes the restoration of cost-of-living adjustments.
The union also said it will kill "several wage tiers", and will bring two groups into the UAW-GM Master Agreement – at Ultium Cells and GM Subsystems LLC.
Also, the UAW said GM has agreed to make five payments of $500 to current retirees and surviving spouses, the first payments in more than 15 years.
